Merry Christmas

Anglican Internet ChurchLeave a comment

I’m taking some time off and invite you to view any of our Christmas and post-Christmas videos using the links on the Welcome page, the Digital Library page and any of the links at the top and bottom of all pages. If you’d prefer to. listen, you’ll use the links on the Podcast Archive and Podcast Homilies pages.

Again, as always, thank you for your interest and support. In early 2025 A.D. there will be two new episodes in the War on Christianity video series. ‘

Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

Fourth Sunday in Advent & Bonus Content

Anglican Internet ChurchLeave a comment

For this final Sunday in Advent season I am passing up on the usual commentary on the Collect, Epistle & Gospel readings. Viewers can access my traditional commentary on the Collect and the readings in Episode Two of the AIC Seasonal Video series, Advent: A Season of Penitence and Preparation, and in my Podcast Homily for Fourth Sunday in Advent.   There are links to the Video and Podcast on the Welcome page and the Digital Library page. The 12th C. frieze below (related to the Gospel reading, John 1:19-28) was used as Illustration No. 17 in The Gospel of John: Annotated & Illustrated, which is available using the link to my Amazon Author Central page.

John the Baptist Baptizing a Man in a Tub, detail, Scene 1 of 5, Recto, parchment frieze of Scenes in the Life of John the Baptist, 4th Qtr., 12th C., Alsace, Ms. Additional 42497, British Library, London, England. The frieze was acquired by the British Library from a private collection in Paris, France, 1931.

Instead of the usual kind of posts, this week I offer those seeking relief from the anti-Christian world of the 21st Century. Some years ago, when the Family Channel was just launched on cable systems, Hallmark produced many excellent videos and DVDs began to replace CDs, VHS and other media, my wife and I began collecting what we felt were the best of the Christmas-themed videos. Then and now, beginning on Thanksgiving Day and ending on Epiphany Eve, Jan. 5th, we watch these at home using my Epson LCD projector tied to my Mac. We started with some classic Christmas videos: Miracle on Thirty-four Street, with a young Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn (as Santa), William Frawley and, in her first film, Natalie Wood (black & white version, 1947); Christmas in Connecticut, with Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sidney Greenstreet, S. K. Sakhal (B&W, 1945); It Happened on Fifth Avenue, with Gale Storm, Dan DeFore, Ann Harding & Reginald Gardiner (B&W, 1947); A Christmas Wish, with Jimmy Durante (1950, colorized in 2003 edition) and Frank Capra’s amazing It’s a Wonderful Life, with Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore and Beulah Bond (B&W, 1946).

We moved on over the years to what I call “modern classics,” including some Hallmark shows, including Angels Sing, with Harry Connick, Jr, Lyle Lovett, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson (Color, 2013); A Boyfriend for Christmas, with Charles Durning’s best performance as Santa (Color, 2005); A Season for Miracles, with Laura Dern, Patty Duke, Lynn Redgrave (Color, 1999); The Spirit of Christmas (Color, 2015); Christmas in Paradise (Color, 2007); The Christmas Card, with Ed Asner (Color, 2006); Unlikely Angel, starring Dolly Parton (Color, 1996); Prancer, with Sam Elliott, Cloris Leachman & Abe Vigoda (Color, 1989) and its sequel, Prancer Returns, with John Corbett, Stacy Edwards, Michael O’Keefe and Jack Palance (Color. 2001); The Christmas Box, with Richard Thomas, Maureen O’Hara and Annette O’Toole, & its prequel, Timepiece, with Kevin Kilner, James Earl Jones, Ellen Burstyn & Naomi Watts (Color, 1998 & 2003); I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, with child stars Dylan & Cole Sprouse (Color, 2001); Christmas Child, with William R. Moses, Steven C. Chapman & Megan Follows (Color, 2004); The Christmas Wish, with Debbie Reynolds and Neil Patrick Harris (Color, 1998); The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, with Henry Winkler, Brooke Burns and Warren Christie (Color, 2008); A Christmas Visitor, with William Devane, Meredith Baxter, Dean McDermott and Reagan Pasternak (Color, 2005); the original All I Want for Christmas, with Harley Jane Kozak, Ethan Randall, Leslie Nielsen (as Santa Claus) and Lauren Bacall (Color, 1991) and its more recent remake by the same name with Gail O’Grady, Jimmy Jack Pinchak, Robert Mailhouse (Color, 2007).

Others movies for the season include Clive Donner’s classic modern version of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, filmed in Shrewsbury, England, starring George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge (Color, 1984) and Christmas Angel, with Timothy Spall, Celia Imre, Brenda Blethyn and Joseph Phillips (Color, 2013); Silver Bells, with Anne Heche and Tate Donovan (Color, 1998); and The Christmas Shoes, with Rob Lowe, Max Morrow, Kimberly Williams, Dorian Harewood, Maria Del Mar; Borrowed Hearts (Color, 2012). And just this week I found sources for three other modern videos now out of product and which have been very hard to find: Christmas Every Day, with former Virginia Governor George Allen playing a walk-on part and young actor Eric Von Detten; Crazy for Christmas, with the late Howard Hesseman (Dr. Johnny Fever of WKRP in Cincinnati) and The Christmas List.

From the AIC online ministry, I wish you all a Merry Christmas. I pray for your safe travel to the church of your choice during this Christmas season.

Glory be to God for All Things! Amen!

Third Sunday in Advent

Anglican Internet ChurchLeave a comment

Unlike the Collects for the first two Sundays in Advent, the Collect for Third Sunday in Advent is not an original composition by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer for the 1549 Book of Common Prayer. Just in case readers might not have seen it, here is the Archbishop’s unusually short original composition.peosu

LORD, we beseech thee, give ear to our prayers,
and by thy gracious visitation lighten the darkness
of our heart, by our Lord Jesus Christ.

For the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, published after the restoration of the monarchy, a new Collect was produced with a clearer focus on the primary themes of Advent. It places greatly emphasis on words derived from the appointed Epistle reading and the second major theme of Cranmer’s first two Collects for Advent, that is, the promised Second Coming in Christ in judgment. In a nod toward the innovations of Archbishop Cranmer, the revisers introduced a theme from his responses to the first nine Commandments in the Decalogue in the 1549 B.C.P. Holy Communion liturgy: “incline our hearts…” and the response to the Tenth Commandment: “write all these thy laws in our hearts…” Prayer Book scholar Massey Shepherd notes that the preamble includes a rare for the B.C.P. example of direct address to the Lord Jesus Christ and that the “ministers and stewards of thy mysteries” refers to the clergy and bishops of the Church in the role of custodians of the heritage handed down from the Apostles.

O LORD Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee;
Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way,
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the
world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the
Holy Spirit ever,* one God, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle reading, 1 Corinthians 4:1-5, repeats the phrase “mysteries” from the Collect. It includes St. Paul defense of himself against accusations from some members of the congregation at Corinth. St. Paul also mentions “mysteries” in Romans 16:25.

Christ Meets John the Baptist and His Followers, illumination in colors and gold on parchment, the fourth of five scenes on the front (Recto) side of a parchment frieze, with four additional scenes on the reverse (Vers0) side, 4th Qtr., 12th C.; Ms. Additional 42497, Recto, British Library, London, England. The images at the left are part of the second scene, illustrating the naming of Elizabeth. John the Baptist is depicted in a humble, crude green garment quite different from the costume of his followers. The document was acquired by the British Library in 1931 from a private collection in Paris, France.

The Gospel reading, Matthew 11:2-10, goes backward in time to about 28 A.D., being St. Matthew’s account of Jesus’ earliest references to John the Baptist. Followers of John want to know “Are you the Coming One or do we look for another?” (Matthew 1:3). Jesus refers to John in the context of the prophecy of Malachi 3:1. One of the major themes of St. Matthew’s Gospel is that Christ is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.

Other AIC Resources on the topics in the Blog post are: The Collect, Epistle and Gospel readings for Third Sunday in Advent, commonly known as Gaudete Sunday, from the Latin gaudere (rejoice), are discussed and illustrated in Episode Two of our Christian Education Video series, Advent: A Season of Penitence and Preparation. My Podcast Homily on the theme, Rejoice in the Love of God, is linked here and from the Podcast Homilies page. Archbishop Cranmer’s understanding of the concept of taking the Commandents and the teachings of the Church Universal into the heart is explored further in our Bookstore Publication, Christian Spirituality: an Anglican Perspective, pp. 8-13, and the Gospel reading for Third Sunday in Advent is discussed and illustrated in The Gospel of Matthew: Annotated & Illustrated, both available through my Amazon Author Central page.

Additional AIC Resources for days during the week following Third Sunday in Advent include the first four of seven episodes in our Seasonal Video series, The Great “O” Antiphons, based on a 12th C. hymn, with one episode for each of the days from Dec. 18th through Dec. 24th.

December 18th – O Sapientia
December 19th – O Adonai
December 20th – O Radix Jesse
December 21st – O Clavis David

As ever, thank you for your interest and support. The AIC web site remains a reliable resource for teaching and study materials based on traditional understanding of Christian doctrine. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!

Second Sunday in Advent

Anglican Internet ChurchLeave a comment

For Second Sunday in Advent Archbishop Thomas Cranmer created a new Collect in which he stressed themes of the new English Church, which had endorsed the effort to create a complete English language Bible. The “Great Bible of 1539,” commonly called the Coverdale Bible, printed in Europe under the authority of the Church of England, made the Old and New Testaments available in the common language of the English people. Whether the pr0ject ever achieved the stated and lofty objective of putting a copy in every Church in England is debatable. Cranmer’s new Collect begins with the only reference in the Book of Common Prayer to God the Father by the title Blessed Lord. In it the Archbishop imposes upon every Christian a duty, against all the forces allied against them, to read and study and contemplate internally the meaning of the words of the Bible and the true message of the new season of Advent. His phrase, “patience and comfort” is an adaptation of Romans 15:4, which is part of the Epistle reading for the day.

BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning;
Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them,
that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast,
the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

God the Father and God the Son, miniature illumination in tempera and gold on parchment, Oxford Psalter, 1st Qtr., 13th C. before 1200 A.D., Ms. Royal 1 D X, f. 98, British Library, London, England. This represents an interesting way of avoiding the early Church prohibition against images of God the Father by showing them together as duplicate images of Jesus Christ (“He who has seen me has seen the Father”). John 14:9 NKJV.


The Archbishop’s selection for the Epistle, Romans 15:4-13, especially verses 5, 6 and 7 (“Now the God of patience and consolation” through “even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” was part of St. Paul’s plea to both Jewish and Gentile Christians for unity in the common faith. Bible scholars have noted that in verses 9-12 St. Paul quotes from the four “pillars” of Judaism: the Law (the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament), the Histories, the Psalms and the Prophets. This system of organizing the Old Testament into four parts is discussed and illustrated in Part One, The Writing Prophets of the Old Testament, available at my Amazon Author Central page.

Christ in Majesty, illumination in colors and gold on parchment, Codex Amiatinus, folio 796v, made at the Benedictine monastery, Wearmouth-Barrow, Northumbria, England, circa 700 A.D. for an edition of the Vulgate Bible. The Codex has been held at the Laurentian Library, Florence, Italy, since 1786. The four evangelists are depicted in the corners of the image. The central image shows Christ seated between two archangels, likely Gabriel and Michael. Christ in Majesty is rendered in Latin as Maiestas Domini 

The Gospel reading, Luke 21:25-33, includes reference to details of the promised Second Coming and the Parable of the Fig Tree. The concept of Christ coming in clouds of power and glory is the basis for the images known in the Western Church as “Christ in Majesty.” In the Byzantine/Eastern Church tradition, a related concept, expressed in art depicting Christ enthroned, is known as “Christ Pantokrator,” literally, Ruler of the Universe. Both versions often depict visual understandings of “signs” (verses 25-26) and “in a cloud” (verses 27-28). I discuss the reading in the context on my Second Sunday in Advent homily theme of “Fire of Judgment” in my Podcast Homily for Second Sunday in Advent. In the AIC Christian Education Video on Advent season, the readings are discussed in the episode for First and Second Sundays in Advent. The “fire of judgment” is a common theme in both the Old and New Testaments. The word “fire” is referred to 53 times in the New King James text. Two excellent examples are Psalm 97:3 in which “fire” goes before the Lord and Ps. 104:4 in which His ministers are called a “holy fire.”

In addition to these seasonal Blog posts I have been working on improvements to several parts of this site. My objective is to improve site navigation by providing internal links. The changes start at the bottom of the Home/Welcome page in the LEARN YOUR WAY section. In addition to these adjustments I call your attention to additional upcoming seasonal videos. For the final seven days of Advent (Dec. 18th to Dec. 24th) we will provide Home page links to The Great “O” Antiphons series and Lessons and Carols for Christmas Eve. Just before Christmas Day I will provide active links to our Christmas season series (3 episodes) and the Twelve Days of Christmas series for Dec. 25th through Jan. 5th.

As always, thank you for your interest and support. We do appreciate those of you who have become followers/subscribers to Fr. Ron’s Blog. Glory be to God for all things! Amen!